“We have seen President Obama usher in socialism under his
watch over the last two years,” she said to a cheering crowd at
a hotel in Washington.

Referring to the overhaul of the U.S. health-care system
that Obama pushed into law last year, the Minnesota Republican
said, “Obamacare is clearly the crown jewel of socialism, and
repealing it is the driving motivation of my life.”

The event’s organizers said more than 10,000 people plan to
attend the 38th annual gathering of Republican activists,
leaders and lobbyists as the party gears up to challenge
Democrat Obama’s re-election in 2012. The event is considered an
early proving ground for presidential candidates.

Among the potential Republican White House contenders
planning to speak are former governors Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota
and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, Indiana Governor Mitch
Daniels, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia and
Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour.

Real estate mogul Donald Trump addressed the group today
and said he will decide by June on running for president.

‘A Whipping Post’

“The United States has become a whipping post for the rest
of the world,” Trump said. “America today is missing quality
leadership and foreign countries have quickly realized this.”

Trump criticized U.S. trade policies, accused China of
currency manipulation and promised to rebuild the American
economy.

“If I decide to run, I will not be raising taxes,” he
told a cheering audience. “We’ll be taking in hundreds of
billions of dollars from other countries that are screwing us.”

Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker who is also
weighing a presidential bid, told the conference that Republican
victories in the 2010 midterm elections were the “appetizer”
and 2012 will be “the entrée.”

He offered a number of suggestions for Obama, including
repealing his health-care bill, eliminating the estate tax,
signing a fiscally conservative budget, codifying an executive
order that blocks taxpayer money from funding abortion and
signing a law to “decisively control the border now.”

Santorum Criticizes Obama

“President Obama has refused to look at the situation in
Iran and Egypt and around that world and to call evil, evil. To
identify the enemy,” he said. “This is someone who doesn’t
believe in truth and evil and America.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said to the
gathering he would keep working to repeal the health-care
overhaul and such other major pieces of Democratic legislation
as the most extensive rewrite of financial regulations since the
Great Depression.

“We will not let the people who spent the last two years
trying to turn this country into France walk away from their
record,” said the Kentucky Republican.

Bachmann, 54, urged Republicans to broaden their appeal to
voters by focusing on national security and socially
conservative issues, as well as on cutting federal spending and
the deficit -- issues that the Tea Party stressed in the 2010
congressional election.

Bachmann’s Remarks

Bachmann, who also has been mentioned as a potential
presidential candidate, said “a narrowly based political agenda
is neither appropriate to our times, nor is it politically
conducive to a broad-based appeal that will determine our
future.”

“As important as these distressing economic concerns are,
we would be wise to recall and not forget that for our
conservative coalition to be victorious in 2012, it will take
every one of us and then some,” she said.

Several groups, including the Family Research Council,
Concerned Women for America and the Heritage Foundation, are
boycotting the CPAC event because GOProud, a group that
represents gay Republicans and opposes a federal ban on gay
marriage, is participating.